The 31st WorldYouthDay will take place this year, on July 26-31, in Krakow, Poland; within the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy, this event becomes the Jubilee of Youth. Aside from the international meeting taking place in Poland, simultaneous celebrations in other dioceses around the world are also encouraged. May we then invite your ecclesial community, possibly through your youth ministry office, to celebrate this jubilee in your own particular church and the settings therein.

The Episcopal Commission on Youth prepared a set of guidelines which we hope will be helpful in planning and preparing this simultaneous local celebration. On a related note, as we journey towards 2021, the 500th year of the Christianization of our country, we are including the conceptual plan of the Youth Forum, our proposal as the particular participation of youth ministry in this pilgrimage we are making as Church in the Philippines.

We trust that you will welcome this suggestion, making possible the participation in the WYD2016 of our young people in spirit. After the event, we kindly ask that a report form be accomplished and sent back to us for the purpose of documentation and evaluation.

Thank you for your kind attention and continued support to youth ministry! Imploring the Lord’s mercies upon you and your communities, especially the families, I remain

Celebrated in the Archdiocese of Cracow for the last 30 years, in Poland for the last 20 years, in the whole world for the last 15 years.

When?

On the first Sunday after Easter.

Whose idea was it?

Jesus! He himself wants us to celebrate this Feast.

How do we know this?

From St. Faustina. She wrote it in the ”Diary”:

”During prayer I heard these words within me: I desire that the first Sunday after Easter be the Feast of Mercy.” (Diary, 299)

Who established this Feast?

St. John Paul II established this feast for the whole church on April 30, 2000 – the day of Sr. Faustina’s canonisation.

What for?

Jesus said to Sr. Faustina: ”Souls perish in spite of My bitter Passion. I am giving them the last hope of salvation; that is, the Feast of My Mercy. If they will not adore My Mercy, they will perish for all eternity.” (Diary, 965)

What does God promise us?

– Your heart can be as pure and clean as it was on the day of your baptism.

– On this day, God wants to give you everything that you ask of Him with trust and if what you ask of Him will be good for you.

”On that day the very depths of My tender Mercy are open. I pour out a

whole ocean of graces upon those souls who approach the fount of My

Mercy. The soul that will go to Confession and receive Holy

Communion shall obtain complete forgiveness of sins and punishment.

On that day are open all the divine floodgates through which graces

flow.” (Diary, 699)

What do we need to do?

Go to meet Jesus in the Confessional so that you may have a pure and clean heart (you may go to Confession a few days before the Feast).

Strive to live in the spirit of trust (which means the fulfillment of His will).

During the day do something good for your neighbor out of love for Jesus.

Check the new Move WYD (Mów ŚDM) video with Fr. Jonathan Kalisch O.P, where he talks about his vocation found in Kraków, memories from previous WYD, Knights of Columbus and their mission during WYD, John Paul II and people who were healed thanks to St. Faustina.

TVŚDM presents a walk around the region of Krakow, Poland following the footsteps of Karol Wojtyła before he became Pope John Paul II, including an insight into the life of Saint Faustina. Take a look at some of the places pilgrims will be visiting during the upcoming World Youth Day in Krakow.

Maybe none of us would have heard of St. Augustine of Hippo, if it were not for these simple words, which God directed to him: “Tolle et Lege” – “Take and read!”. This much was sufficient to start the conversion of an ordinary, sinful person into one of the greatest saints of the Church. Today, God directs these same words to each of us: take up and read the Bible, my Word!
No one is capable of telling us about God as much as He is Himself. No human word is so “living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing until it divides soul from spirit, joints from marrow; it is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart” (Heb 4:12).

Because of this, in the year of preparations for World Youth Day in Krakow, we want to encourage you to read the Word together, and sharing how it truly impacts you.

We are deeply convinced that God desires even today to work in the hearts of everyone, who join in this work. Drawing on the words of our Savior: “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy,” we have chosen excerpts for you that talk about His Mercy. Because we want to imitate Him, let us try in the coming year to stand in truth and to see through the light of the Word of God both our wretchedness, which demands meeting with mercy, and our greatness, which thanks to this mercy we are able to reach. Above all, let us set aflame in ourselves the desire for encountering the Mericful One!

How can we go about this?
Each month here, at www.krakow2016.com, there will be an excerpt from the Holy Bible. It will be accompanied by a prayer and a commentary together with examples of questions with which to meditate, and to reflect on in groups. Download and suggest them to Your communities, parish groups, families, groups of friends. If there are no groups of this sort in your parish – make one!

Take and read the Word: in church, on your way to work and to school, in busses, in cafés… Meet together and proclaim among yourselves the Good News about what the mercy of God has done in your life.

“For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.” (Matthew 18:20). Be open to the work of the Holy Spirit; may He lead you in this prayer. Let Him transform you and read about His Mercy!

L4 program

L4 – The Sick for WYD

*L4 is a commonly used name for a sick leave note

This project is concerned with the sick. In this way, we wish to follow the example set by John Paul II: before difficult pilgrimages, demanding tasks, or simply, great work, he asked the sick to pray for him. We want to prepare for World Youth Day in a similar way.

World Youth Day is not only a difficult organizational undertaking, but it is also a very significant event in people’s lives, for their faith, and therefore it requires spiritual support from all members of the Catholic Church. Taking into consideration the motto of the World Youth Day in Kraków, blessed are the merciful, we wish to proclaim mercy together through our words and actions.

We hope that posters about the Sick Leave project will reach parishes and religious orders, hospitals, clinics, care homes and their residents. Ailing people of all ages will receive letters requesting a prayer and offering for the intention of World Youth Day. In order to deliver these letters we ask for the help of young volunteers, young people involved in parish communities. We hope that this campaign will result in the formation of new groups of young people in parishes who routinely take care of the infirm. The letters also contain a prayer for the sick as well as testimonies of people, who have experienced suffering in their lives but, despite this, have not given in to doubts and their difficulties.

Apart from this, in each letter there is a declaration, which can be completed by the sick people and sent back to the World Youth Day office. In this way the names of all the participants of the project will be collected in the so-called WYD Prayer Book, which will be handed over to the Holy Father during World Youth Day.

Further letters concerning the Sick Leave Project will appear regularly on the WYD website.

The Prayer of the Sick

Beloved Saviour of the world, together with the earth and heaven I worship Your Divine Heart, which allowed Itself to be pierced by the soldier’s spear, so as to wash the whole world with the Blood of Salvation. I douse the youth, the girls and boys from all over the world in this spring of Love who are preparing themselves for World Youth Day. I entrust each of them to You, Lord, and I pray that the meeting with the Holy Father will be a breath of Your Spirit, a seed of grace and leaven of good. Open their minds to the truth and their hearts to Your love which is present in the Word, the sacraments and in communion with one another. May the work that You have begun in them expand and grow. For them, Jesus, I offer you my daily cross of suffering, pain and loneliness. Unite us all in Your love, who lives, reigns and loves for ever and ever. Amen

Tell people about L4 in your parish and ask your priests for help with reaching the poor.

Hang the campaign poster in your parish and school.

Get a group of friends together and tell them about the L4 campaign – The Sick for WYD.

Go to the sick, to hospitals, to nursing homes, hospices… Visit the sick, pray with them and for them, encourage them to pray for WYD.

The letter gives a description of the campaign, a testimony of a sick person and a declaration of participation – Each sick person can fill it out and send it to Krakow (by mail or email), and we will write their name in the WYD Prayer Book.

If there is any need, or if you have any questions – contact us.

Remember to pray for the sick and the suffering, as well as for young people all around the world!

The terrorist attacks in Paris raised many questions related to world security, among these at World Youth Day, which will take place next year in Poland.

World Youth Day is an event with a religious nature on a global scale. Many people from various countries and continents will then gather in one place. For everyone: volunteers, pilgrims, people involved with the organization of WYD safety concerns are of primary importance.

“The tragedy in Paris showed that peace and security in Europe is at risk. We hope that these issues will be resolved, that there will not be a threat,” said the Metropolitan of Krakow Cardinal Stanisław Dziwisz, responding to journalists’ questions.

“Europe along with the United States has strength enough in order that Europe, including Poland, continue feeling safe, and that simultaneously not only WYD in Poland, but also the European Football Championships in Paris be able to take place in security, in peace, what Europe ought to have,” added Cardinal Dziwisz.

The Organizing Committee is in close cooperation with the departments responsible for ensuring security at a national and international level.

As Fr. Grzegorz Suchodolski, secretary general of the OC WYD, assures, in the emerging situation we must behave like every adult citizen and Christian – we express our solidarity with all victims of terrorism on earth. As believers, we give assurance of our prayers.

In WYD’s social media, a prayer campaign is being carried out. Volunteers and participants of WYD pray for peace on earth with the slogan, “PRAY FOR PEACE”.

Seven months before World Youth Day, for the inauguration of the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy, the Pastoral Department of WYD Krakow 2016 has prepared a unique project: a series of meetings and conferences entitled “For us and the whole world”, which will be broadcast online and available on the Internet in nine languages.

Encouraged by Pope Francis, we want to prepare ourselves for WYD by performing works of mercy. From December 2015 to June 2016, during seven meetings, which will take place on Saturday afternoons in the Sanctuary of the Divine Mercy in Krakow-Łagiewniki, special guests invited from Poland and abroad will introduce us to the topics of mercy and works of mercy, which are meant to be a starting point for the practical performance of mercy in life.

Thanks to the live broadcasting via Internet (in Polish and in English), and afterwards the recording and translation of the conferences into nine languages, youth from the whole world can take part in this spiritual preparation. In this way, young people will meet through prayer and listening to the Word of God long before WYD.

These meetings will be led by Tomasz Adamski and MateuszOchman, Internet bloggers who are known and appreciated by the young generation.

During the first part of the meeting, the hosts will speak with the invited guests about works of mercy. A film will be shown about 12 of Krakow’s Saints, whose lives can inspire us to perform mercy in life.

Following the Eucharist, the evangelizing part of the meeting will begin: a conference that will end with a prayer of praise.

The first conference “For us and the whole world” – will take place as soon as December 12th. It will be given by Antonello Cadeddu and Fr. Enrique Porcu, who are missionaries from the community of Alliance of Mercy in Brazil. The topic will be two works of mercy: admonishing sinners and feeding the hungry. Two saints – St. Stanislaus, bishop and martyr, as well as Brother Albert – will be the witnesses of mercy.

The next meetings will take place on January 16th(the guest will be Fr. Michał Olszewski SCJ) and on February 20th (Fr. Adam Szustak OP).

More than a month after the Orientation of the Group Leaders and Assistant Leaders last August 15, some of the groups registered with ECY-Philippines, the official delegation of the CBCP-Episcopal Commission on Youth to the World Youth Day (WYD) 2016, organized their own Group Orientation that strengthened their preparation for the WYD2016.

These groups met with their respective members to present and explain the application process established for the ECY-Philippines, and to elaborate on how they can prepare together for the WYD2016 not only in relation to the requirements but also to their being pilgrims (to see their photos click here).

Around 500 individuals from different groups representing particular churches, youth organizations, schools and other settings are expected to join the CBCP-ECY delegation to the WYD2016.

To welcome greater participation, the ECY is extending the registration of a group in this delegation until October 15. Similarly, the application of individuals, whether belonging to a group or not, is extended until December 11.

Coming up!

World Youth Day Update

DIOCESAN YOUTH DIRECTORS, COORDINATORS and LEADERS YOUTH MINISTERS in the NATIONAL COUNCILS of FNYO-MEMBER ORGANIZATIONS YOUTH MINISTERS in PARISHES, CAMPUSES, YOUTH GROUPS, etc. Your Excellency: Greetings in our Lord who is Mercy! The 31st World Youth Day will take place this year, on July 26-31, in Krakow, Poland; within the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy, this event becomes the Jubilee […]

Check out the episodes of WYD Minute series with information and news about the preparation for WYD Krakow 2016. Share it with your friends! For more episodes, pls. subscribe to: Światowe Dni Młodzieży Kraków 2016 / World Youth Day #krakow2016

Divine Mercy Sunday Celebrated in the Archdiocese of Cracow for the last 30 years, in Poland for the last 20 years, in the whole world for the last 15 years. When? On the first Sunday after Easter. Whose idea was it? Jesus! He himself wants us to celebrate this Feast. How do we know this? From […]

Merchandise

KA-LAKBAY: Directory for Catholic Youth Ministry in the Philippines
The ecclesial document on youth ministry for the Catholic Church in the Philippines, published by the CBCP-Episcopal Commission on Youth for P200.00 only!

Youth Encounter Facilitators’ Handbook
Handbook for facilitators of the “official formation program of the CBCP for the youth”
P200.00 only (available for those who have completed the YE-Facilitators Seminar Workshop)

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